Abstract

[Extract] Disturbance is an integral component of ecology, responsible for re-setting successional clocks and preventing the dominance of climax communities (Grime, 1973; Connell, 1978). However, ecologists, environmentalists and resource managers are concerned that the diversity, frequency, intensity, and spatial extent of disturbances is increasing (Hoegh-Guldberg, 1999; Wooldridge et al., 2005), and communities are perpetually in the early stages of succession, or have 'flipped' to alternate stable states (Scheffer et al., 2001).